![]() … But you don’t love something because you’re blind to its faults, right? You love it despite its flaws.”Īs with the fictional article that begins the book, Umrigar’s strength as a writer is most potent in individual scenes that distill these tensions. He comes to represent a version of India that could be home to Smita. ![]() Mohan, an upper caste man from Mumbai, acts as the ultimate foil for Meena’s brothers. It’s also a microcosm of the book’s central tensions, from the power dynamics inherent in who is telling a story to the privilege wielded by men, Americans, Hindus, members of the upper caste, the educated, and urban dwellers and the intersectionality of the two women around whom “Honor” is centered. This article is written by Shannon, a white American foreign correspondent (as Umrigar reveals in the acknowledgments, the character was inspired by the real life work of Ellen Barry for The New York Times). ![]() To many around her, Meena is seen to have dishonored her family by defying her brothers and entering into an interfaith marriage they had forbidden. ![]() Spurred on by a lawyer who’ll work pro bono, Meena is taking her brothers to court, an act unheard of in the rural community where they live. Abdul, Meena’s husband, does not survive the blaze. “ Honor,” Thrity Umrigar’s ninth novel, opens with a newspaper clipping detailing the fate of Meena, a woman who becomes disabled after surviving a fire set by her Hindu brothers with the intention of killing her and her Muslim husband. ![]()
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